This invention relates to improved cushioning grips for guns having handles of the pistol type.
The comfort and effectiveness with which a gun may be held may be greatly enhanced by forming the grip of the gun to have cushioned outer surfaces of rubber or other elastomeric material for contacting the user's hand. To attain this result, various prior art patents have disclosed cushion grip units adapted for application to certain known types of pistol handles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,084 shows a grip arrangement including two side sections to be received at opposite sides of a revolver handle and secured together by a screw extending through the handle and between the two side sections, with each side panel including a body of elastomeric material and a stiffer reinforcing plate embedded therein. Our U.S. patent application Ser. No. 838,805, filed Oct. 3, 1977 on "CUSHIONED PISTOL GRIP" shows another revolver handle grip device including reinforced side panels which are integrallly secured together by a flexible elastomeric strap extending across the back of the handle. U.S. Pats. Nos. 3,815,270 and 4,043,066 disclose other cushioned grip units which are designed for use on automatic pistols. In the first of these patents, two side panels formed of elastomeric material and containing reinforcing plates are secured integrally together by a flexible strap extending across the front of the pistol handle, while in the second of these patents, U.S. Pat. No. 4,043,066, two reinforced side panels interfit, with separately formed straps extending across both the front and rear of the automatic piston handle. Another cushioning grip is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,049,739, and consists merely of a flexible elastomeric sleeve or cover which is adapted to be stretched slightly and slipped onto a gun handle, and which in its installed position contracts into tight engagement with the handle for reception thereon by virtue of the elasticity of the material.
The present invention is directed to the provision of a cushioned grip which is especially designed for application to another known and conventional type of gun frame. More specifically, the frames with which the invention is concerned are of a type having a grip mounting projection or tang which projects from the rear portion of the gun frame in a downward and rearward direction, and which conventionally carries a rigid, one piece grip element shaped externally to a handle configuration to be grasped by a user's hand. In the usual arrangement, this rigid grip body contains a recess shaped and dimensioned to slidably receive the projection on the gun frame, with a retaining screw extending upwardly through a passage in the grip body from its lower end and connecting to the discussed projection on the frame to secure the grip body to the frame. The head of the screw bears upwardly against a shoulder formed in the lower portion of the rigid grip body to clamp it upwardly against the frame. The recess within the rigid body may be shaped to have a cross-section corresponding substantially to that of the projection on the frame, to fit closely thereabout and thus locate the grip body relative to the frame.